Garlic
Harvested in early summer and dried with care, garlic gives Almería's kitchens a frank depth, from ajoblanco to stews — without being, in the fields, a major provincial speciality.
Garlic belongs to the everyday vocabulary of Almería's kitchens: raw and crushed, roasted, fried very gently or melted into sauces. Its presence on the plate far outweighs its weight in provincial agriculture — Andalusian balances place production mainly in Granada, Córdoba and Seville. Here it grows in the open fields of the interior and the Levante, the Pulpí district among them, which round out the provincial calendar when the greenhouses slow down in summer.
The bulbs are ready when the foliage yellows: they are pulled, left to air and then dried to set the skins and improve keeping. Official calendars distinguish early spring harvests from later types; purple garlic, recognisable by the coloured membranes of its cloves, comes earlier, while white garlic tends to be larger and later. These are indicative markers — variety, planting date and plot adjust the real window.
In a kitchen rooted in its land, a few cloves are enough to thread together soups, marinades, fish and vegetables. Garlic gives its name and soul to ajoblanco, ajo colorao, gambas al ajillo and alioli — the list of dishes that begin with it reads almost like a full menu of the province.
Varieties
- White garlic
- Purple garlic
Season
Low rows in open country
No plastic here: garlic draws upright green lines across the bare plots of the interior and the Levante, under a wide horizon. In early summer the scene turns from green to straw, and after lifting, the fields stay dotted for a while with bunches drying in the sun.
A companion of the summer plots
Around Pulpí and in the inland market gardens, garlic shares its plots and calendar with celery, radish, onion and asparagus: open-air crops that carry the province's supply when summer slows the greenhouses. After lifting comes the stage that defines it — an unhurried drying that hardens the skins and turns a few days' harvest into a year-round pantry.
